Nothing like a trip somewhere else to make you see your own backyard in a whole new light. I recently returned from Leadville, Colorado and have been drawing comparisons between the climbing in the high mountains of Colorado vs the climbing in the really low mountains of Alabama. I came back to Alabama to find the prizes I won on the queen stage of the Rapha Rising competition (Read my ride report here – Rapha Rising Wednesday Mega-ride). I’ve been thinking about this topic for quite a while – so I’m going to let my annotated screenshots illustrate some conclusions I’ve reached from a quantitative perspective, but from a qualitative perspective I have to conclude that neither is better than the other. Climbing big mountains is just so radically different than climbing smaller hills that it really is like comparing apples to oranges. Fortunately for me, I like them both.

The last 40 miles of today’s 10,000 foot ride. Note that this is the same scale as the previous screenshot (Leadville pre-ride). The fact that they both fit on the same scale says that the hills aren’t that far off from each other.

COLORADO: Leadville 100 MTB race – leaders passing me before I reach the turnaround. Note: to fit the climb onto the screen, I had to change the vertical scale to FOUR TIMES greater than the typical scale I use in Alabama

ALABAMA: Double Oak way – long climbs

ALABAMA: Dolly ridge climb at two different horizontal scales – 10 miles per grid square

ALABAMA: Dolly ridge climb at two different horizontal scales – 1 mile per grid square. Note how smaller hills appear in the middle of the climb. This typically doesn’t happen on big mountain climbs where the engineers have worked hard to create a steady grade

ALABAMA: Opposite vertical acceleration >10,000 ft per hour up instantaneously and >10,000 ft per hour down 30 second average – this corresponds to “g-forces” that you can feel at the bottom of the hill

ALABAMA: Max speeds on a ride from a few days ago

COLORADO: Turn right at the state of colorado – screenshot of my ride from Raton, NM to Trinidad, CO

COLORADO: Cows and elk on the descent down Old Raton Pass – screenshot of my ride from Raton, NM to Trinidad, CO